Chapter 111 The Snake Queen’s Story
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“Gegegek…”
What was she saying?
She wanted me to leave the jungle?
“The exit from the jungle isn’t far from here. If you want to leave, you could do so immediately.”
This area lacked the towering trees typical of the jungle.
So, this must be on the outskirts of the jungle—a place where you could step outside with just a few strides.
The Snake Queen had brought me to such a place.
“Can you take the princess and leave this place?”
To get me out of the jungle.
I couldn’t understand why.
In a rather serious tone, I asked her.
“Gegek…”
She stared straight at my face.
“Are you asking why? Isn’t it obvious? Capturing the Bird King is a foregone conclusion. There’s no longer any reason to rely on an outsider.”
An outsider.
Normally, I might have thought, “I’m a lizard, so I’m not really an outsider.”
But not now.
On the surface, her words made sense.
They seemed logical.
We were never that close to begin with.
But this wasn’t right.
The Snake Queen was saying things she didn’t really mean.
I’d seen her smile foolishly over a single rice cake.
So I knew that her current expressionless face was just an act.
This was the same Snake Queen who had given me the Fire Carp and Snow Lotus Ginseng.
There was no way she would go to the trouble of giving me those precious items just to kick me out now.
That didn’t add up.
“Geck.”
I locked eyes with the Snake Queen.
“…Ha.”
The smile she gave was hard to decipher—whether it was one of sadness or amusement, I couldn’t tell.
“You really are something else.”
The Snake Queen reached out and pulled me toward her.
We were in shallow water.
Getting back to shore wasn’t difficult at all.
After climbing out of the water onto the nest where Shikshik was still sleeping, I shook off the excess water.
The Snake Queen watched me quietly before speaking again.
“This battle will be dangerous. I’m confident of our victory, but there’s always that ‘what if.'”
Finally, she was giving me the real reason.
It was absurd.
What battle isn’t dangerous?
I had crossed the line between life and death countless times.
The Snake Queen gazed at Shikshik, who was still snoring peacefully.
Her true intention was to get me to a safe place, along with Shikshik.
I agreed that Shikshik needed to be kept safe.
But excluding me from the fight was something I couldn’t accept.
The Snake Queen gently stroked Shikshik’s head, then leaned back into the grass.
In human terms, it was as if she sat down with a heavy thud.
“…I’m a coward.”
A coward.
That was not a word I expected to hear from her.
“I’m greedy, yet I can’t bear to lose what’s mine. I’m a foolish coward.”
Who would dare to call her a coward?
She was the Snake Queen who ruled the jungle alongside the Bird King.
The Snake Queen’s yellow eyes looked at me.
But they weren’t the usual cold, indifferent eyes—they were round and soft, like when I had seen her smile before.
“…I’ve never told you what kind of relationship I have with the Bird King.”
I sat down in front of her.
This was a sign that I was ready to listen.
“When I was a small snake, Hunhwi raised me.”
A small snake, huh?
The Snake Queen must have had such a time in her life.
I could guess as much from the way the old Compsognathus acted.
“And I wasn’t the only one he raised.”
The old Compsognathus lived with many small creatures.
She must have been one of those.
“Gaechar-goa-dal. He grew up with me.”
The Bird King grew up with the Snake Queen?
“Yes. As you’ve probably guessed by now, he was originally a snake.”
The Snake Queen wore a sad expression.
“He was a timid, weak snake who couldn’t do anything without me.”
Gaechar-goa-dal.
I had noticed that his name sounded similar to Quetzalcoatl.
“We were like siblings. We grew up together, eating the food that Hunhwi brought us.”
Quetzalcoatl was the feathered serpent.
“And then, one day, a human appeared before us.”
A human.
This must be the person who had given the Snake Queen her mystical items or abilities.
“I always thought humans were weak and evil. But this one was different.”
If the Snake Queen spoke so highly of this person, they must have been incredibly powerful.
“She was pure, untainted. Yet her strength was beyond anything I could comprehend.”
The Snake Queen closed her eyes as if recalling that time.
“She told us that even if we were born as snakes, we could become dragons through continuous training.”
Both the Snake Queen and the Bird King were obsessed with dragons.
And the reason for that was because it had been the driving force behind their growth.
“We continued our training. Our bodies grew larger, our strength increased.”
“Geck.”
“I thought that if we kept training, Gaechar-goa-dal and I would eventually become dragons.”
But she was still a snake.
Although the Basilisk is considered a type of dragon by some, she saw herself as a snake.
Which meant that she had failed to become a dragon.
“As time passed, he began to change. He sought teachings from someone other than the Little Dragon and started distancing himself from us. But I didn’t pay it much mind. Hunhwi, he, and I were family.”
“Gegeck.”
“But the distance between us continued to grow. He began to torment the small creatures that the Little Dragon protected.”
Small creatures.
Just as the Snake Queen and the Bird King had been raised, other small animals must have been raised with them.
If they had lived at the same time, they would likely have grown into formidable creatures by now.
…But when I last saw the old Compsognathus, there weren’t any creatures like that around.
At most, there were some high-level lizards.
“And then, one day, something happened.”
The Snake Queen hugged herself and shrank into her body.
It was clear that remembering that incident brought her great sadness.
“He killed all of Hunhwi’s disciples.”
That explained why there were no particularly strong creatures in the Little Dragon’s territory.
The Bird King had killed them all.
“As if he felt no guilt, he proudly displayed the wings he gained through the blood of so many.”
Grit.
The Snake Queen clenched her teeth hard.
“With such a despicable expression….”
Rumble….
The overwhelming aura I felt when she faced off against Argentavis slowly began to emanate from her.
It must have been a terrible memory.
So much so that it pained her to even think about it.
“Gegek.”
I placed my head near where I assumed her knee would be.
“…What is it? Are you telling me to stroke this smooth scale to calm my nerves?”
“Gegegek.”
“That’s exactly the sort of thing you would do.”
The aura that the Snake Queen had been emitting began to dissipate.
Maybe she wasn’t fully calmed down, but at least she seemed to have her emotions under control.
“…Gaechar-goa-dal is that kind of being. He’ll do anything to get what he wants.”
The Snake Queen continued.
With one hand, she gently stroked my head.
“I’ve already received more than enough help. It’s the responsibility of those involved to sever these wretched ties themselves.”
Preparations to defeat the Bird King were almost complete.
She wouldn’t go into battle expecting to lose.
But the Bird King had a twisted personality.
Even if they won, it was likely that there would be casualties.
And as the Snake Queen’s official mate, I was a likely target.
“Once again, I ask you. Will you please leave this jungle with my daughter?”
That’s why she wanted me out of the way.
There was only one thing I could say.
“Gegek.”
I was in the body of a lizard.
All I could do was make these gegek noises.
So, this was the only way I could communicate with her.
The Snake Queen spoke, and I responded.
But calling this a conversation felt a bit too generous.
She would understand the meaning behind it.
But the thoughts I wanted to convey went far beyond that.
For the first time, I found myself resenting this body that could only make gegek sounds.
“Gegegek.”
Wait.
You’re planning to take Gaechar-goa-dal’s core without me?
I can’t allow that.
“Gegek!”
After I shouted, the Snake Queen stared at me blankly for ten seconds.
Then tilted her head for five seconds as if trying to understand what I was saying.
“Uhoot….”
Then she laughed softly as if she had finally figured it out.
“You really are incorrigible.”
“Gegek!”
There was no need to overthink this.
We just needed to hide Shikshik in a safe place and launch a full-scale attack.
If she was still worried, I could keep Shikshik in my mouth during the fight.
“Mate.”
“Geck?”
“…You brought this upon yourself.”
Ssssss.
The Snake Queen’s tail wrapped around my body.
What’s going on all of a sudden?
“Gegegegek!”
“I gave you a chance.”
What is she talking about?
“If you’ve decided to stay here, you must be ready for this.”
“Geeeeek!”
I didn’t mean for this to happen!
Shikshik, wake up!
I think I’m in big trouble.
The Snake Queen’s
grip tightened around me.
I was about to be eaten by the Snake Queen.
I closed my eyes.
Someone, please save me.
“Ex-excuse me!”
Suddenly, I heard a human voice.
The Snake Queen and I both froze.
“…Did you hear that?”
“Gegeck.”
The Snake Queen’s grip loosened, and I quickly nodded.
Whoever it was, they had just saved my life.
“How strange. What is a human doing here? And to speak to us after seeing my mate…”
It was unlikely that this was an ordinary human.
No ordinary person would calmly speak after witnessing a giant lizard being nearly eaten by a woman with the lower body of a snake.
“But it was definitely a human voice. Hmm…. We should check it out.”
Was she planning to punish the human for interrupting this lovely moment?
Whoever it was, I offered my condolences.
“P-please help me….”
Maintaining a cautious stance, I approached the person with the Snake Queen.
I also took Shikshik with me, just in case.
A woman with black hair stood before us.
Blood was trickling from several small wounds on her body.
They weren’t fatal, but the way she limped suggested that moving around was difficult for her.
“Huff, huff! Big lizard…! Please, please help me….”
I turned to the Snake Queen.
I was asking her what we should do with this woman.
“That can’t be….”
The Snake Queen stuttered.
Her reaction was unusual.
“That can’t be right. I’m sure…”
“Are you okay?”
The Snake Queen’s body trembled violently.
And the mysterious woman looked at her with concern.
What was going on?
Something was off.
Why was the Snake Queen reacting so strongly?
Did she know this face?
My mind raced.
What were the odds that such a person, someone who would make the Snake Queen react this way, would show up at this exact moment?
If the Snake Queen recognized her, that meant she had survived an encounter with her.
That would require a certain level of power.
But such a person, with just a few minor injuries, was asking us for help?
And the sudden appearance of a human in this place was suspicious.
The fact that the Snake Queen and I approached her without much doubt was also strange.
This unsettling feeling—I’d felt it before.
“Could you come a little closer?”
The woman was still sobbing, but a smile was playing at the corners of her mouth.
I focused my vision.
【Nacha Bird lv70】
Of course.
The Nacha Bird could take on a human form.
The Snake Queen must have been tricked into seeing someone she had an emotional connection with.
If it hadn’t been for that, she would have seen through the disguise immediately.
It was a good strategy.
But she made two mistakes.
[「Reverse Scale lv1」 activated.]
One was underestimating the fact that the Snake Queen’s husband had the Wild Eye trait.
[「Gecko Death Beam lv1」 temporarily acquired.]
“Wa-wait. What are you….”
Zzzzzzap!
The other mistake was not realizing that her husband could unleash a Gecko Death Beam when he was confused.